Mind Games
by Invader-Hime
Summary: One Shot. While chasing an Ectonurite for the Plumbers, Kevin is possessed and subjected to the horrors of his past and potential future. Gwevin.


Mind Games

By Chibi Hime

Kevin's chest began to burn with exertion. The three of them had been running on and off for the better part of three hours. Several Omnitrix changes on Ben's part and several pink blasts on Gwen's still had not brought the escapee to justice.

They were on the verge of catching the fugitive. Three sets of footsteps raced after the whispy tail of a female Ectonurite that had escaped a Plumber containment ship. Ben, Gwen and Kevin had been the ones nearest the escape point and had volunteered to go after her.

Kevin was beginning to wish they hadn't. He had the feeling something bad was about to happen, but h couldn't place what it was. This wasn't Ghostfreak, or whatever Ben called the Ectonurite from the old Omnitrix. It was just some two bit criminal the Plumbers had let slip out of their grasp. It was someone they would chase around and catch eventually. Just like always.

Not just like always.

This time would be different.

Kevin spotted her flickering in and out of visibility. He charged after her, ahead of the others, drawing strength from knowing that the creature would be caught momentarily...that he could go home and go to sleep.

But this time was going to be different.

Just as the creature was cornered, it turned intangible and blasted through Kevin. The action made it feel as though someone had turned an Arctic gale on him. He screwed his eyes shut against the cold. In a moment, the feeling had passed. Kevin still kept his eyes clenched shut.

In a moment, he eased one open, then the other.

The Ectonurite had vanished.

"Where did it go?" Kevin shouted.

The other two looked above them, but saw no trace of their quarry.

Kevin didn't have to wait long for an answer. An eerie, heavy cold settled in his stomach and moved fluidly throughout his body.

_I'm right here, boy._

The voice echoed around the inside of his skull. It vibrated his bones.

"Where are you?" Kevin snarled, looking about madly.

_I think you already know._

Oh God.

"Get out of there! Get out of my head!" he demanded.

_Why would I want to do that? It is so much more interesting in here than it is out there. There are lots of things for me to look at and...play with._

"GET OUT!"

_What all do we have in here? Let me see..._

Kevin froze and felt as if bizarre, cold fingers were flipping through his brain like a book. Half formed images and blips of sound popped in his skull. Time had no meaning, events appeared out of order. They weren't complete either. Little flashes of sound, images and colors flickered before him. The Ectonurite was flipping through his own thoughts and memories like a book.

Kevin had never felt so violated in his life. It was flipping through his deepest, darkest secrets with so much ease and no regard whatsoever for his privacy. It flicked open a horrific scene as easily as it did a pleasant one.

His fifth birthday party, happiness, chocolate cake, Vulkanus, New York, Villgax, Gwen, Null Void tentacled bat monsters, laughter, purple goo, the train yard, Taedentite, the subway station in New York..one by one, they flickered in and out of focus without any rhyme or reason. His own body flickered form one form to another in his minds eye.

_I was right! There is so much in here to entertain me! Oh my! Look at this! This is unexpected...so interesting._

Suddenly, the world around him flickered and he was on top of a bridge in San Francisco. It was happening all over again. He remembered it very clearly. The Ectonurite played it like a movie. It was like being there again. Feeling everything again. It flicked ahead a few weeks to when he was abducted by Slixx Vigma, then trying to pound Morningstar, then back several years to when he first started living in the subway, then back to the bridge, just as a pair of insectoid wings burst from his shoulders. Then in a flash, he was on the ground in energy cuffs with Ben, Gwen and Magister standing over him. In another moment, the alien Plumber was dying and in another, he was being punched in the stomach by Vilgax. Once more he was a crying child, then a crystalized version of himself, then a snarling monster, all in a series of moments. Time had no meaning to this invader...nor did the ramification of the sensations she was causing. Every moment the Ectonurite managed to drag from the depths of his mind was riddled with an almost photographic imprint of what he had seen, felt, smelled and sometimes tasted. Kevin felt as if his senses were being overloaded from an onslaught of pain, pleasure and a thousand other feelings that manically rammed themselves together in order for him to register that they wracked his system.

"Stop it!" Kevin screamed, hands clutching the sides of his head.

_Why? Things are about to get interesting._

"This isn't real! It can't be real! Get out of there!" Kevin snarled helplessly.

"Kevin...what is it? What's wrong?"

He heard Gwen's voice somewhere far away. He felt her hands on his either side of his face, but he couldn't see her. All he could see were shadows of his own past.

He saw his mother through the window. He saw her pause a moment to figure out just what exactly was outside the house...what she thought was outside the house. He could see his own monstrous reflection in the glass and he understood her horror.

_You were a real piece of work back then_. _Even Mommy was scared of you._

"She didn't know it was me! I get that now! I was just a kid! I didn't understand!" Kevin screamed.

_Oh...but isn't that what you are. My, my. It certainly looks like it from all the things I'm rummaging through in your mind. Just look at this.._

He was on the Megacruiser...he was tearing a robot to pieces. He was in the Null Void holding little Gwen Tennyson in his hand, thinking about crushing her just to see Ben cry. His tiny hand was reaching for his father's, looking for acknowledgement, receiving an icy glare. He was alone in his room. He was alone in the dark on a meteor in the Null Void, curled into a ball, trying to stay warm. Alone. High Schoolers eyed him warily. Alien Gladiators stared at him and whispered things behind his back. Elementary school children stood in a circle around him, moving two steps away for every one he took forward. In these memories, he was always left behind...always an outcast...always alone.

_No one wants you. No one can stand to be around you. You are meant to be alone. Always._

"Kevin!"

Gwen's voice was distorted by the memories and the voice of the Ectonurite, but it was unmistakably hers. It was what he needed. It made his tormentor's believable taunts into a lie.

"Its in my head! Get it out!" Kevin screamed.

_So that's what you are afraid of. The Future. That is a very good thing to be afraid of. My, My. You do have a soul. Or rather, you did._

The voice indicated it had found something that interested it rather keenly. Kevin shuddered as he felt those icy fingers paw through his mind and pull up something he thought he had buried. It was a dark thought, a place that smelled of burnt flesh and smoke. He had had many similar thoughts, but this one...this singular terrible thought had been shoved down into the deepest recesses of his mind. This was the worst case scenario that haunted his nightmares. He smelled blood and iron. He heard snarls and screams. In the darkness, a twisted form writhed just out of sight. It was forever shifting, changing and shrieking, its loud, horrible voice. It was in pain, both physical and mental. It screamed out its agony and Kevin saw something limp hanging in its deformed paws. He saw how gently those twisted claws were holding the thing in its grip and in a second, Kevin's heart was in his toes.

It was holding something blue and red. Blue clothes, red blood.

It was holding Gwen.

That thing was him. He knew it. He couldn't explain how he knew it, but he did. It felt like he was looking into a mirror whenever he tried to focus on its perpetually shifting form. It wasn't like before, when he has trapped in one set amalgam form, from what he could make out...this horrible thing was actively, almost desperately changing shapes, he wasn't sure if it was doing it on purpose, or if it couldn't help it.

The other him was holding Gwen..limp Gwen...dead Gw-..No. NO!

Her body turned over in the monstrous grip, loose, like a rag doll. Empty green eyes stared out at the world, glazed over and unfocused. He heard his other self scream again and he could hear his own voice embedded in its mournful howl.

It was too much...too horrible.

"No! No, this isn't real! This is an illusion!" Kevin shouted.

"What is? Kevin, what is it?" Gwen asked, somewhere far away and very alive.

"Any of it! None of it! Get her out of my head!" Kevin sobbed, unable to stand the Ectonurite's manipulations of his mind anymore.

Fortunately, he didn't have to.

A deep seated cold clenched at his core. He felt a frigid, clawed hand gone intangible paw around his insides, feeling for the intruder. The feeling traveled up his abdomen and chest. Kevin's heart clenched as the icy hand ran over it, quickly feeling about for any trace of the invader.

With a quick yank, the Ectonurite was pried from Kevin's body. He heard it scream and felt its claws scraping at his organs like a frigid rake. But it was out now. It was out and the images stopped. Warmth began to spread through his body once again. The world began to come back into focus. He started when he saw the fanged, twisted face of his tormentor in front of him.

"Its okay,"

He felt Gwen's warm hand on his shoulder. Another look at the Ectonurite revealed that it was sealed under a thick layer of ice. It was harmless now. It couldn't move, let alone pry at his psyche anymore. Kevin swallowed. He felt his knees knocking into each other and realized he was shaking all over. Gwen squeezed his shoulder.

"Kevin? Are you alright?" she asked.

He looked Gwen in her large green, wonderfully alive eyes. In his mind, he saw a flash of those eyes, wide and dead to the world. Kevin clenched his eyes shut and shook his head.

"Sure. I'm just...just cold," he managed to say, rubbing his arms.

He saw Gwen frown. She knew he wasn't fine. He knew she knew. She knew but she wouldn't push it. Kevin was glad she wouldn't. Not right now. He finished rubbing his arms and flexed his hands, suddenly becoming preoccupied with how they looked. He bent each finger, taking time to see just how normal they were...how human. He'd only just gotten them back. Was he already doomed to lose them a second time? Had that future been real? No. That was impossible, it was only what he was afraid of. He couldn't see the future. It was just something his subconscious had dreamed up. It just combined his fears...that was all. It wasn't going to happen.

Was it?

"No. I'm not gonna let it," he said aloud.

"Not going to let what do what?" Gwen asked.

Kevin jumped, having forgotten she was there. He opened his mouth to tell her, but found he couldn't begin to describe what he meant. Not going to let her die? Not going to kill her? Not going to turn into a monster...again? He didn't even know what he needed to fix the future...if it needed fixing at all. He bit his lip and nodded.

"I'm not going to let this thing do that to anyone else. Let's take this trash back to the Plumbers so we can all go home and go to bed," he ended gruffly.

He took a few steps, but Gwen caught him.

"I know what she did to you," she said softly, so Ben, who had gone off to call for a pickup for their quarry, wouldn't overhear.

"She...she..," Kevin found himself unable to finish.

"She went through your mind like a book, right? Showed you...told you a lot of things that weren't true," Gwen said, "I know what that's like. When I was a kid...I got possessed by one too. It was horrible. I was cold and alone. It told me I was stupid...an idiot and that nothing I did mattered. I knew it was lying...but...it hurt. It somehow made everything hopeless and pointless. But it wasn't real. Like you said. It wasn't real. I mean...I don't want to sound braggy, but I'm in three advanced placement classes at school, I spend my free time helping people and I must have done something right because you joined up with us...and that matters," Gwen said, ending on a smile.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

Her cheeks burned red a few seconds later and she restlessly brushed her hair behind her ear. Kevin smiled. Gwen knew how to make everything better. She always did. That's why he had to make sure that...that future...vision...whatever it was, didn't happen. He needed her to make it better. She made things make sense. He needed that. He wouldn't let anyone take that away.

Not ever.

He stalked over to the frozen Ectonurite and tapped the ice's surface, as if to get the creature's attention. It couldn't move, but Kevin was certain he had its attention. He blew the alien a raspberry and flicked the ice near its eye. He snickered and walked back to Gwen, putting a strong, heavy hand on her slender shoulder. She looked relieved that he had gotten over whatever the criminal had filled his mind with. Kevin smiled. He hadn't. He'd just decided to see the other side of it. He wasn't going to let any of it ever happen again...or, if the case may be, ever at all. That was reason enough to smile...tonight, anyway.


End file.
